Industry and Competitive Analysis

Industry and Competitive Analysis

“Quote” “Analysis is the critical starting point of strategic thinking.” Kenichi Ohmae “Things are always different--the art is figuring out which differences matter.” Laszlo Birinyi

What Is Situation Analysis? • Two considerations • Company’sexternal or macro-environment • Industry and competitive conditions • Company’s internal or micro-environment • Competencies, capabilities, resource strengths and weaknesses, and competitiveness

Question 1: What are theIndustry’s Dominant Economic Traits? • Market size andgrowth rate • Scope of competitive rivalry • Number of competitorsand their relative sizes • Prevalence of backward/forward integration • Entry/exit barriers • Nature and pace of technological change • Product and customer characteristics • Scale economies and experience curve effects • Capacity utilization and resource requirements • Industry profitability

The Experience Curve Effect • An experience curve exists when a company’s unit costs decline as its cumulative production volume increases because of • Accumulating production know-how • Growing mastery of the technology • The bigger the experience curve effect, the bigger the cost advantage of the firm with the largest cumulative production volume

Question 2: What Is Competition Like and How Strong Are the Competitive Forces? Objective • To identify • Main sources of competitive forces • Strength of these forces • Key analytical tool • Five Forces Model of Competition

Analyzing the Five Competitive Forces: How to Do It • Assess strength of each of the five competitive forces (Strong? Moderate? Weak? ) • Rivalry among competitors • Competition from substitute products • Competitive threat from potential entrants • Bargaining power of suppliers and supplier-seller collaboration • Bargaining power of buyers and buyer-seller collaboration • Explain how each force acts to create competitive pressure—What are the factors that cause each force to be strong or weak? • Decide whether overall competition (the combined effect of all five competitive forces) is brutal, fierce, strong, normal/moderate, or weak

Rivalry Among Competing Sellers • Usually the most powerful of the five forces • The big factor determining the strength of rivalry is how actively and aggressively are rivals employing the various weapons of competition in jockeying for a stronger market position and seeking bigger sales • Is price competition vigorous? • Active efforts to improve quality? • Are rivals racing to offer better performance features? • Are rivals racing to offer better customer service? • Lots of advertising/sales promotions? • Active efforts to build a stronger dealer network? • Active product innovation? • Active use of other weapons of rivalry?

What Causes Rivalry to be Stronger? • Active jockeying for position among rivals and frequent launches of new offensives to gain sales and market share • One or more firms initiates moves to bolster their standing at expense of rivals • Lots of firms that are relatively equal in size and capability • Slow market growth • Industry conditions tempt some firms to go on the offensive to boost volume and market share • Customers have low costs in switching to rival brands • A successful strategic move carries a big payoff • Costs more to get out of business than to stay in • Firms have diverse strategies, corporate priorities, resources, and countries of origin

Competitive Force of Potential Entry • Seriousness of threat depends on • Barriers to entry • Reaction of existing firms to entry • Barriers exist when • Newcomers confront obstacles • Economic factors put potential entrant at a disadvantage relative to incumbent firms

Common Barriers to Entry • Sizable economies of scale • Inability to gain access to specialized technology • Existence of strong learning/experience curve effects • Strong brand preferences and customer loyalty • Large capital requirements and/or other specialized resource requirements • Cost disadvantages independent of size • Difficulties in gaining access to distribution channels • Regulatory policies, tariffs, trade restrictions

Competitive Force ofSubstitute Products Substitutesmatter when customers are attracted to the products of firms in other industries Concept Examples • Eyeglasses vs. Contact Lens • Sugar vs. Artificial Sweeteners • Newspapers vs. TV vs. Internet • E-mail vs. Overnight Delivery vs “Snail mail” (U.S. Post Office)

How to Tell Whether SubstituteProducts are a Strong Force • Sales of substitutes are growing rapidly • Producers of substitutes plan to add new capacity • Profits of producers of substitutes are up

Competitive Pressures From Suppliersand Supplier-Seller Collaboration • Whether supplier-seller relationships represent a weak or strong competitive force depends on • Whether suppliers can exercise sufficient bargaining leverage to influence terms of supply in their favor • Extent and competitive importance of collaborative partnerships between one or more sellers and their suppliers

Competitive Force of Suppliers • Suppliers are a strongcompetitive force when: • Item makes up large portion of product costs, is crucial to production process, and/or significantly affects product quality • It is costly for buyers to switch suppliers • They have good reputations and growing demand • They can supply a component cheaper than industry members can make it themselves • They do not have to contend with substitutes • Buying firms are not important customers

Competitive Pressures: Collaboration Between Sellers and Suppliers • Rival sellers are forming long-term strategic partnerships with select suppliers to • Promote just-in-time deliveries and reduced inventory and logistic costs • Speed availability of next-generation components • Enhance quality of parts being supplied • Reduce suppliers’ costs which paves way for lower prices on items supplied • Competitive advantage potential may accrue to industry rivals doing the best job of managing supply-chain relationships

Principle of Competitive Markets Suppliersare a stronger force the more they can exercise power over: • Prices charged • Quality and performance of items supplied • Reliability of deliveries

Competitive Pressures From Buyersand Seller-Buyer Collaboration • Whether seller-buyer relationships represent a weak or strong competitive force depends on • Whether buyers have sufficient bargaining leverage to influence terms of sale in their favor • Extent and competitive importance of collaborative partnerships between one or more sellers and their customers

Competitive Force of Buyers • Buyers are a strong competitive force when: • They are large and purchase a sizable percentage of industry’s product • They buy in large quantities • They can integrate backward • Industry’s product is standardized • Their costs in switching to substitutes or other brands are low • They can purchase from several sellers • Product purchased does not save buyer money

Competitive Pressures: Collaboration Between Sellers and Buyers • Partnerships are an increasingly important competitive element in business-to-business relationships • Collaboration may result in mutual benefits regarding • Just-in-time deliveries • Order processing • Electronic invoice payments • On-line sharing of sales at the cash register • Competitive advantage potential may accrue to industry rivals who do the best job of managing seller-buyer partnerships

Strategic Implications of theFive Competitive Forces • Competitive environment is unattractive from the standpoint of earning good profits when: • Rivalry is strong • Entry barriers are lowand entry is likely • Competition from substitutes is strong • Suppliers and customers have considerable bargaining power

Strategic Implications of theFive Competitive Forces • Competitive environment is idealfrom a profit-making standpointwhen: • Rivalry is moderate • Entry barriers are highand no firm is likely toenter • Good substitutes do not exist • Suppliers and customers are in a weak bargaining position

Coping With theFive Competitive Forces • Objective is to craft a strategy • To insulate firm from competitive forces • To help make the “rules,” placing added pressure on rivals • Which allows firm to define the business model for the industry

Question 3: What Forces Are atWork to Change Industry Conditions? • Industries change because forces are driving industry participants to alter their actions • Driving forces are the major underlying causes of changing industry and competitive conditions

Analyzing Driving Forces 1.Identify those forceslikely to exert greatest influence over next 1 - 3 years • Usuallyno more than 3 - 4factors qualify as real drivers of change 2.Assessimpact • What difference will the forces make - favorable? unfavorable?

Common Types of Driving Forces • Internet and e-commerce opportunities • Increasing globalization of industry • Changes in long-term industry growth rate • Changes in who buys the product and how they use it • Product innovation • Technological change/process innovation • Marketing innovation

Question 4: Which Companies are in Strongest / Weakest Positions? • One technique for revealing the different competitive positions of industry rivals is strategic group mapping • A strategic group consists of those rivals with similar competitive approaches in an industry

Strategic Group Mapping • Firms in same strategic group have two or more competitive characteristics in common • Sell in same price/quality range • Cover same geographic areas • Be vertically integrated to same degree • Have comparable product line breadth • Emphasize same types of distribution channels • Offer buyers similar services • Use identical technological approaches

Procedure for Constructing aStrategic Group Map STEP 1: Identify competitive characteristics that differentiate firms in an industry from one another STEP 2: Plot firms on a two-variable map using pairs of these differentiating characteristics STEP 3: Assign firms that fall in about the same strategy space to same strategic group STEP 4: Draw circles around each group, making circles proportional to size of group’s respective share of total industry sales

Example: Strategic Group Map of the Video Game Industry Arcades Arcade operators Publishers of games on CD-ROMs Home PCs Sony, Sega, Nintendo, several others Types of Video Game Suppliers/Distribution Channels Video game consoles MSN Gaming Zone, Pogo.com, America Online, HEAT, Engage, Oceanline, TEN Online/Internet Low (Coin-operated equipment) Medium (Console players cost $100-$300) High (Use PC) Overall Cost to Players of Video Games

Interpreting Strategic Group Maps • Driving forces and competitive pressures often favor some strategic groups and hurt others • Profit potential of different strategic groups varies due to strengths and weaknesses in each group’s market position • The closer strategic groups are on map, the stronger the competitive rivalry among member firms tends to be

Question 5: What Strategic Moves Are Rivals Likely to Make Next? • A firm’s own best strategic moves are affected by • Current strategies of competitors • Future actions of competitors • Profiling key rivals involves gathering competitive intelligence about their • Current strategies • Most recent moves • Resource strengths and weaknesses • Announced plans

Competitor Analysis • Successful strategists take great pains in scouting competitors to • Understand their strategies • Watch their actions • Evaluate their vulnerability to driving forces and competitive pressures • Size up their resource strengths and weaknesses and their capabilities • Try to anticipate rivals’ next moves

Predicting Moves of Rivals • Predicting rivals’ next moves involves • Analyzing their current competitive positions • Examining public pronouncements about what it will take to be successful in industry • Gathering information from grapevine about current activities and potential changes • Studying past actions and leadership • Determining who has flexibility to make major strategic changes and who is locked into pursuing same basic strategy

Question 6: What are the Key Factors for Competitive Success? • Competitive elements most affecting every industry member’sability to prosper • Specific strategy elements • Product attributes • Resources • Competencies • Competitive capabilities • KSFsspell the difference between • Profit and loss • Competitive success or failure

Identifying IndustryKey Success Factors • Answers to three questions pinpoint KSFs • On what basis do customers choose between competing brands of sellers? • What resources and competitive capabilities does a seller need to have to be competitively successful? • What does it take for sellers to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage? • KSFs consist of the3 - 5 really major determinants of financial and competitive success in an industry

Example: KSFs for Beer Industry • Utilization of brewing capacity -- to keep manufacturing costs low • Strong network of wholesale distributors -- to gain access to retail outlets • Clever advertising -- to induce beer drinkers to buy a particular brand

Example: KSFs for Apparel Manufacturing Industry • Fashion design -- to create buyer appeal • Low-cost manufacturing efficiency -- to keep selling prices competitive

Question 7: Is the IndustryAttractive or Unattractive and Why? Develop conclusions about whether the industry and competitive environment is attractive or unattractive, both near- and long-term, for earning good profits Objective Principle A firm uniquely well-suited in an otherwise unattractive industry can, under certain circumstances, still earn unusually good profits

Things to Consider inAssessing Industry Attractiveness • Industry’s market size and growth potential • Whether competitive conditions are conducive to rising/falling industry profitability • Will competitive forces become stronger or weaker • Whether industry will be favorably or unfavorably impacted by driving forces • Potential for entry/exit of major firms • Stability/dependability of demand • Severity of problems facing industry • Degree of risk and uncertainty in industry’s future

Conducting an Industry andCompetitive Situation Analysis • Two things to keep in mind 1.Evaluating industry and competitive conditions cannot be reduced to a formula-like exercise--thoughtful analysisis essential 2.Sweeping industry and competitive analyses need to done every 1 to 3 years

Industry and Competitive Analysis